The NUS National Conference (NatCon) is still yet to begin due to an ongoing stand off between a Labor coalition, consisting of Student Unity, Student Left (formerly known as National Labor Students but now including splintered groups), against Socialist Alternative (SAlt).
The factions agree on the broad strokes of the stalemate. SAlt have been standing outside the conference room, for the purpose of pulling quorum. After Victorian Unity split from the national Unity caucus on 7th December, SAlt became the largest faction present by a margin of two votes.
SAlt have two main demands: that their motion on condemning the genocide in Gaza is moved to the top of the agenda, and that their faction is given the executive position of Education Officer. Spokespeople from NLS and Unity have told student media that they are happy to have the Palestine motion moved to the top of the agenda, but they flatly refuse to consider giving SAlt the Education Officer position.
Shovan Bhattarai (USyd SAlt) commented that “We are going to fight [for] a pro-Palestine student union. [We will fight] as long as it takes… It’s the approach that we’re here to challenge which tries to see our student union become nothing more than a cheer squad for the Labor party and nothing more than a toothless box-ticker when it comes to the government’s handling of this genocide.”
Aidan O’Rourke, the NUS General Secretary, said “We’re not withholding conference from happening, SAlt are. We’re here, we’re ready to go. [SAlt’s demands] are the most undemocratic thing I’ve ever heard. We’ve offered them positions. The idea that they’re claiming that a lockout is happening is not true.” O’Rourke did not disclose what positions had been offered.
NUS President Ashlyn Horton said “At this point, we don’t have any change in our positions.” She said that there would be further discussions and that she was unable to disclose any other information.
Eddie Stephenson (SAlt) said “[Labor] are publicly branding themselves as the people who are party to trying to keep the NUS from doing anything about Palestine… This morning, Israel announced that they’re going to annex Gaza up to the yellow line. That’s what we’re talking about.
“These guys want to make it into a joke, like ‘who’s friends with who, you’ve locked people out before you’ve done this and that’. It’s about the political content of who’s going to take initiative around that, or putting people who’ve explicitly said they don’t want to.”
Yasmin Johnson, a UTS SAlt member, tried to speak on the conference floor about why SAlt had pulled quorum. She was almost immediately shouted down by Labor members from across the factions, who proceeded to leave the conference floor.
At around 11:30am, all delegates on the floor left the conference room. “We’re very very close to quorum, but with quorum not being achieved and lunchtime coming up now, it will make a more orderly lunchtime to begin that process. It is not us that pulled quorum, it is SAlt. Education officer is not for Student Unity to deal away, that is for the left. We’re meeting with the left over lunch, we’ll deal with that together. I hope to secure a deal.”
When asked about the Victorian Unity split and intra-factional division, O’Rourke responded “They’ve left largely because of reasons of their own. Those reasons include not wanting to implement affirmative action rules within the caucus. They also don’t believe that the long-standing conventions of our factions should continue. There’s been a lot of lies in that letter [by Victorian Unity]. I’m proud to say that I have 100 per cent support in my caucus.” The notice from Victorian Unity included a resolution to eject O’Rourke as Unity’s National Convenor.
O’Rourke said regarding this resolution, “Much worse has happened to me in the past. This does not bother me whatsoever.”
Johnson said “We believe that the deal that’s been signed between every faction of the Labor party that’s been present at this conference is a deal to lock out the only faction that’s been consistently doing pro-Palestine activism for the last two years, and to provide cover for a government that is currently shipping F-35 parts to Israel, which recently opened its first missile production centre in Newcastle two days ago, and which has continued to provide diplomattc support for the Netanyahu government while they commit a genocide.”
When asked about what she had been trying to say in the conference room, Johnson responded “We want to demand that the Labor party factions stop locking out the pro-Palestine activists from the union. We were drowned out by chanting and singing… We’ve had that all week when we try to talk to the Labor students about this. Some of them make animal noises, they start singing songs. They treat this either like a stepping stone on the path to a political career or a joke.
We’re prepared to accept a different position that will allow us to do Palestine campaigning, and we’ve put forward a number of different options to them which they’ve refused.”
The conference remains at a stalemate: quorum has not been met because of SAlt, and SAlt isn’t getting the Education officer position because of the Labor factions. Neither side has made meaningful strides towards compromise, which threatens the existence of the NUS itself. Without NatCon starting, the NUS can’t fill its minimum constitutional requirements of having its financial reports passed. The NUS would have to elect office bearers by postal ballot, and the 2025 office bearers would continue to hold their positions until new office bearers had been elected. They would also be constitutionally obliged to hold a “special meeting” no later than 31 January 2026.
Student media will be paying close attention to developments in the negotiations.
Note: This article has been revised from an earlier version that inaccurately stated that the NUS would dissolve if NatCon did not go ahead.